


Hacker's Folly

by lilacnightmares



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Bad Puns, Cars, Cat Puns, Flirting, Garage, Hide and Seek, Irritated Sibling, Jokes, Nicknames, Nonbinary Character, Oil, Other, Puns & Word Play, Skeletons Puns, Taunting, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:54:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26513245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacnightmares/pseuds/lilacnightmares
Summary: When he can’t seem to find just what he needs, a mischievous angel appears from nowhere to give him exactly what he needed. It may not have been what he thought he wanted but it was surely what he needed.Work from Tumblr.
Relationships: 707 | Choi Luciel/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 6





	Hacker's Folly

Never let it be said that Saeyoung wasn’t a passionate man. 

This man was drowning in adoration and affection for the people around him and he hadn’t been allowed to express freely since he had been a teenager with his brother, trapped in that house. So, when he reclaimed his name and made it his own once more, he decided to become the person that he had left behind. 

No, it wasn’t just going back, and it wasn’t just going forward, it was more like he was trying to become his truest self, which was the boy he left behind when he joined the agency and the person that he had become when he met them. He never thought that his life would all change someday when a stranger popped up in that apartment. 

But, he would forever be grateful for that day because it changed the course of not only his life but the lives of those around him. 

He never would have been able to save his brother and have him back in his life if it wasn’t for Skelly. They grounded him, gave him the courage to believe in himself, reminded all of his troubled thoughts that he wasn’t a doomed man, and allowed him to see that he could learn to love another and be loved in return. 

Call him cheesy, but he utterly devoted to them and their happiness for their selfless acts to him and his little found family. 

Saeyoung was just happy that life had begun anew, and while it would never go back to the way it was, it could become something else entirely, something new and fresh and vibrant, full of life and the truest hope. That was why he would take any chance that he could get to bother them, or get their full attention on him. 

Oh, but Saeyoung was truly a tease, and that meant that he wouldn’t always approach Skelly to get what he wanted out of them. 

No, he would make a fun little game out of it to see if they would grasp at straws and figure out all the little clues that would allow them into his heart. Hm, one time he set up an entire escape room in the bunker and they had to figure out how to get out by—

Translating and decoding little hidden gems that made up their relationship. He sprinkled in a mess of all the languages they knew together and had Skelly on their hands and knees looking around that darn room until they could find his surprises. It would have taken longer, but it took him a while to hide all of those post-its and electronic locks. 

Nothing says “I love you, honey,” more than two dozen bike locks and junker phones that would give them a single word that would open the door up. Of course, not all of them made sense. He had to put some fakes in there! They only had to decode the message with the clues on paper and the answer from the electronics! 

What rhymes with Skelly? The question asked. If you said, Jelly! You’re not wrong, but you don’t have the right answer to Saeyoung’s question! 

Had Skelly not been utterly delighted in the challenge and the fact that he taunted them that they couldn’t solve his puzzle, they might have realized that the real answer to the final lock had simply been: E-L-L-Y. 

Spite is a lovely thing, and he knew his kitten well. 

They would prove him wrong the long way if they had to. He had to admit that he was stubborn too, but that was one of the many qualities that they shared and he considered that a very good thing. You can get to know yourself if someone comes in and shows you what you’re really like, and when he heard Skelly say one cat pun, he was smitten like a kitten in a mitten. 

Saeyoung had to admit that it was utterly adorable to see their pursed-lip and furthered brow. He could have made that easy, but who was Saeyoung Choi if not the very someone that liked to make a little bit of mayhem? That was only one of his many challenges and he could continue to make them for years to come and nobody would stop him. 

Okay, well, someone may try to stop him if he dared to ask them to do something a bit reckless, like say, scale a building or something. But, hey, he wasn’t that daft! Even Saeyoung could see reason now and again, even if Madam Vanderwood would tell you that anyone who spends their free time trying to make a fire-breathing dog robot has no common sense. 

He totally had a perfectly good reason for that, but that was on a need to know basis with Tom, and  _ only his friend Tom _ . 

Nevertheless, Saeyoung Choi was truly a man that loved his family, his friends, and most importantly, the person that stole his heart so easily.

Today, he had given Skelly just a bit of mercy just by leaving them a note to come and join him in the garage whenever they finished with their morning chores. He was in the middle of finishing a small last-minute touch up on his baby that had to be replaced. 

He paused, patting the area that wasn't underneath the car with him, looking to grab a tool as he patted around the pavement to find where the pesky thing went. There was just the faintest sound of a giggle and that made him know what exactly was happening. He hadn't misplaced it. 

"Now. I could have sworn that I put that wrench here. Don't tell me there's a pesky cat burglar in our midst," Saeyoung hummed, rather thoughtfully. 

" _ Purrhaps _ , there is," a voice said. "Didn't your maid ever tell you that you keep an eye out for tricky little felines? They'll steal  _ purr  _ heart and leave  _ mew  _ with nothing!" 

He couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped his throat. He should have known there was a little kitten around here making a ruckus for him, there always was. Saeyoung slid out from underneath the vehicle and found himself staring up at their bright grin and wild eyes as they dangled the wrench in their hand. 

“Looking for  _ me-ow _ ?”

“Mmm, I think I am. Are you going to make a break for it, or are you going face your crimes, my little cat burglar?” 

“ _ Purrhaps _ , I’ll make you give chase.” 

“Well, it’d be a  _ catastrophe  _ if I let you get away with it this time.” 

They snickered at that but took off in the opposite direction and Saeyoung gave a playful sigh, shaking his head, crawling off the ground, and following after them. Now, he could have caught them in a few seconds but that didn’t make the game fun. That just seemed like using his agent skills over them, and that wasn’t as fun! 

Saeyoung ducked around another one of his cars, there were seven in total, of course, because if he didn’t do things in factors of seven it just didn’t feel as lucky. The tiniest sound of footsteps echoed off the garage walls but he couldn’t quite see where Skelly had gone and hidden out. Hm, perhaps they had gone that way. 

He glanced around the room but he couldn’t see where they had gone. Hm, they were getting a lot better at hide and seek. However, they hadn’t left the room as if they were cheating the game of Marco Polo. The door was still shut tightly. That was the one thing that he was sure of. 

He glanced through the tinted windows, “The longer it takes to find you, the more I’m going to get onto you, kitty-Kat!” 

A voice came from his immediate right, “I’d hate to  _ skell-daddle  _ on you, Saeyoung, but I’m not going to give up that easy. You can’t find me.”

The redhead perked up and followed the sound of their voice. He saw just the hint of a shoe peeking out from behind the trunk. He chuckled. Now, he knew that they thought they were being slick with him but they had failed to double-check all of their blind spots. That was why he often won their little games in the end. 

“I hate to say it, but it looks like you may be out of luck for today,  _ my lovely bones _ ,” he silently crept forward and sprang out behind the edge of the car to realize that there was nobody there at all, just an abandoned shoe on the ground. He had been had! 

A pair of lips brushed against his cheek before he could look to see where Skelly had gone to hide from him, and he knew that he had lost the game. They caught him before he could catch them. “Looks like I win that round, mister agent,” Skelly stuck out their tongue when he looked at them, heat beginning to take over his face. 

It could have rivaled his hair at that moment. “ _ Gaaaah _ !” He stumbled back a bit but Skelly caught him by the arm, however, he had seen that part coming so they wound up coming down with him onto the cool pavement. That gave him the chance to get the upper hand on them once again, and he couldn’t help but grin wildly at the bewildered expression of their face. 

They had come to rest on his lap with either of their hands on the side of his head. “It looks like you fell hard for me,” he said without hesitation. “I hope your fall from heaven wasn’t too painful for you, angel.” 

Their laughter dissolved into a little gasp, but then back into laughter again. There was a bit of a flush to their cheeks but none so as bad as the one that he had. “Thanks for catching me, I don’t know what I would have done if that tickled my funny bone.” 

“Mmm,” he hummed, thoughtfully. “I think that’d be  _ humerus _ , wouldn’t it?”

Skelly snorted. “It sure got me rattled, didn’t it? I’ve got a  _ skele-ton  _ of these prepared, Saeyoung, you know better than to go there.”

He only had that wicked grin on his face. He brushed his hand against their tousled hair and brushed back some of the more wild locks that had fallen in front of their face out of the way. He noted the way there was just the smallest tremor whenever he extended a soft gesture toward them, so he couldn’t stop himself from cupping their cheeks. 

It was adorable. 

“Hey, can you tell me why the skeleton didn’t cross the road, kit-kat?” 

“Mmm, because he didn’t have the  _ guts  _ to try.”

The sounds of genuine laughter erupted in the room. 

Whatever tension had brewed up had just melted away whenever he told a joke to break the ice. He never had to worry about things getting boring or overwhelming. It just felt right. He didn’t have to get caught up in the details, he could just exist and have some fun instead of working himself to death for the Madam. 

The two of them couldn’t help but laugh at their poor usage of puns. It was just one of those things that had drawn them together in the first place. While that mask he wore as 707 had been a bit of a farce, it wasn’t all a lie on the surface. No, he did enjoy acting up and teasing other people with horribly timed puns. 

He knew that he had found a kindred spirit in them, and, he hoped he would never lose this one and only connection. 

An irritated grumble came from the direction of the door that connected the bunker to the garage, so he and Skelly both looked to see who had made that sound, only to see that Saeran was leaning against the frame of the door with a disgusted look on his face. He had noticed their position and the look on his face reflected how he felt about their affectionate ways. 

Saeran narrowed his eyes, “Can you two stop screeching louder than some demon? It’s way too early in the morning to deal with… whatever the hell this is. If you’re going to flirt and fool around, I think the least you could do is take a drive so I don’t have to hear it.” 

That only made Saeyoung pout, “Saeran, are you jealous that I’m not giving you enough attention? If you wanted to join, you could have just asked to come and play our game!” 

“I want no part of this game, point blank,” his brother said, flatly. His gaze flickered between them and this incredibly compromising position. “From the looks of it, this is definitely something that should only involve the two of you.” 

Skelly snickered at the look on Saeran’s face and stood up off of Saeyoung and offered him their hand, and he took up, helping himself up and whipping off the dirt from his jeans as he did so. “Don’t worry, Saeran, it’s not like that. He was just being a sore loser cause he lost our game of hide and seek. You know, the usual.” 

“Well, learn to control your monster,” he said, before turning back into the bunker and shutting the door behind himself. “He’ll only listen to you.”

When Skelly glanced back at Saeyoung, he had started to pout at the little back and forth. He didn’t think that Saeran would march off so soon. They took that as an opportunity to steal a kiss from his lips this time around. It surely stopped the whines from coming to his lips this time around and made him snap at attention like a good soldier. 

They turned from him, feeling rather triumphant until he caught ahold of their wrist and pulled them back into his embrace. “Don’t start something you can’t finish with me, Kat,” he chuckled. “You know how I feel about that sort of thing. I really am a sore loser.” 

“Don’t be a brat about it,” they managed, looking at him with their brows feathered. “Otherwise, I will follow Saeran’s advice and take you out of here to show you a lesson.” 

“...You mean at skeeball at the arcade, don’t you?”

“What else could I mean, Saeyoung? I will wipe the floor with you!” 

“Not if I do it first!” 

They slid their hand up to interlock their fingers with his, a mischievous look flashing across their face as they whipped some keys out of their pocket to show him. “I came prepared, as a matter of fact, you aren’t getting out of this one.” 

He narrowed his eyes, “Oh, bring it on.” 


End file.
